Sometimes you're hot, sometimes you're not

Wes, I envy you. My band is having a real hard time finding gigs.

xg5a

Well, you are underage aren't you? That makes it difficult. You should talk to your school about playing a dance. If you know other young bands, talk to them about a battle of the bands. We have battle of the bands in my town several times a year at clubs like the Elks. This is a great place for underage bands to play and compete. Contact some of these clubs in your area. They make good money selling food, snacks, and sodas. So it works well for them if you can draw a crowd.

If all else fails, set up your gear in the driveway and play an outdoor jam when the weather gets warm. Tell all the kids at school. We did this when I was young and we got loads of kids to come out.

It is not accidental that we get gigs. We have a brochure Dom made. He owned his own business many years ago and really knows how to advertise. The brochure has a nice picture of the band on the front. Inside we have a demo CD. Our demo is not very good at all in my opinion, but it gives club owners an idea of what we sound like. We have a nice set list showing the songs we play, and even copies of the posters we make for each gig. We usually spend about $50-80 on nice professional posters from a printer for each gig. We always put out flyers on street poles and businesses that allow us (music stores, etc...). This impresses the owners and shows we make efforts to pull in the crowds. We have professional business cards we pass out, and even magnetized calenders that has the bands contact numbers at top. Everybody likes a calender, so people are always reminded of our band and have the numbers to contact us.

Other clubs see our posters as well and get curious about us. We get calls often.

And from playing for quite a while we know many club owners. They are familiar with us. So this helps to get us in the door as well.

Sometimes we offer to play the first gig for less. We will knock $100 off our going price, sometimes even more. But we make it clear if we do well we expect to be offered future gigs at our set price. This works well for the club owners and us as well.

We are happy to play 2 gigs a month. We have played the last 3 weekends and play next Saturday. This is a little too much, our drummer especially does not like to tie up every weekend. But we have been getting the calls. It is hard to say no, we love to play.

So it is not magic that we get lots of gigs.

wes,

i'll post right after the gig, well, the next afternoon when i wake up lol

xq5a,

wes nailed it, they won't know about you until you tell them, you gotta get out there and sell yourselves, good luck let us know how it goes for you

Yeah, I guess not playing bars tends to make it difficult to get gigs. It's too bad we don't live back in the 60's or 70's, in the age where every school hired a band for every dance. (Stupid DJ's) Then again, there'd be no guitarnoise either...

Yeah, I guess not playing bars tends to make it difficult to get gigs. It's too bad we don't live back in the 60's or 70's, in the age where every school hired a band for every dance. (Stupid DJ's) Then again, there'd be no guitarnoise either...

This could be a topic in and of itself! Would most people even get started playing guitar if the resources we have today weren't available? Not to mention being able to own one!

But back to the topic at hand - don't forget that you can try to put together your own shows. Maybe see if you can get the school to host a "band showcase" for you and other bands in the same boat. If it goes over well, then work at trying to make it a regular gig.

And if not the school, try hitting on any other the civic minded community groups that might be in your area. And the merchants. A local music store might find the idea just the thing to help promote sales. You might be surprised at the support you might get. There are all sorts of possibilities.

Peace

Yea, kind of feel bad for adding to this because the topic of this discussion is getting WAY out there but....

I was in your situation when I was in a gigging band. We were all 18 or 19 and the bars just wouldnt let us in. So, we got gigs are places like carnivals, there was a music shop that sponsored a "battle of the bands" where 4 or 5 of us played one night for over 500 people, we DID get one bar to let us in and they just kept us away from the bar area, we played in a pool hall/game room for several hundred (This was an awsome gig), we played for the HS talent show for an audience of over a 1000.

I guess my point is that you have to be extremely creative and flexible when you are a young musician. If you arent adverse to playing Christian rock (Which is really pretty good stuff) then you can book yourself at youth events for churchs. PM me if you want the names of some great metal or rock Christian bands. I could go on and on.

Be flexible, be creative. You might not make the money now but you'll get a name around that you can capitalize on once you are of age.

Good luck

Geoo

Geoo

Don't worry where the thread is going, this is more interesting than the original subject anyway.

Yeah, getting gigs is something you have to MAKE happen. You can be a great band, but unless you get out there and promote yourself you will go nowhere.

If I was a young underage person, I would get in touch with a few other bands in your age group and approach your school with a battle of the bands. These are lots of fun and attract big crowds. The school can make great money selling refreshments. You won't get any money, but you gain expericence and the thrill of playing before crowds.

There are venues you can play like coffee houses or even restaurants. As I wrote before, you can get gigs at clubs like the Elks or Shriners.

Make a brochure for your band. A little folder with a photo of the band, your setlist, a demo CD, and business cards with your contact numbers. Then get out there and push yourself a little. It is a little scary at first just like playing in front of people, but you get used to it. Go in pairs, it is always easier for two people than one.

And don't take no for an answer. 8) I am not saying be pushy, that never works. But hang tough. If a club says they are booked for the next several months, ask them to look at their calender (this is a trick I have used successfully many times). If the owner goes for that calender, I know I have a gig. No matter what date the owner gives me, I say, "We'll take it!". Now they have to say NO which is very difficult for people. Try it, works great. A little trick I learned in sales many years ago. I have gotten many gigs with this little trick.

Once you get a gig, show up early. Be courteous. Be as professional as possible and put on a good show. If you do a good job they will hire you back. And maybe next time you make a little money. :D

Wes ,
I can honestly say that as bad as your gig sounded , I would have traded places with you in a heartbeat after our gig last saturday night . First of all , we were playing in a bar where a few months ago we had had probably the worst experience in any of my band member's playing careers . It all started as we began our second set . That night , a fight broke out over the pool table in the back of the bar . While the fight was quickly broken up , it wasn't over by a long shot .
One of the combatants , a minor no less , was escorted out of the bar and proceded to get in his large pickup truck , in a highly intoxicated state , and struck and killed another patron in the parking lot driveway . The events of that night will stay with me for the rest of my life . Though I did not know the victim , a father of two boys 14 and 4 years old , we had many acquaintances in common and his funeral was a very , very sad day , as you can imagine .
Now forward to saturday night , same bar , nearing the end of our final set . The bar is packed , we can do no wrong and it has almost erased the bad memories associated with this place . We were approached by a woman who wanted us to play something slow so that she could dance with her male friend . Fine , although we really don't play any out-and-out ballads we chose one of our slowest tunes and played it a little slower than usual so as to please her . Well , don't you know it during this SLOW dance this woman and her partner start having words with another couple who apparently bumped into them on the dance floor .
As I watch the drama unfold before me I can see more and more people getting involved in the " discussion ." All of a sudden two men start getting in each other's faces right in front of the bandstand which is nothing more than about two feet of space between the band and the dance floor and on the same level . Then it happened . The two men began an extremely violent and startlingly abrupt fight right in front of the band . They proceeded to trip over one of the floor monitors and fall onto the stage pulling a microphone cord out of it's connector and pushing my right speaker stack about four feet backward . Thankfully it didn't topple over and damage anything or anyone . I stopped playing the song we were playing and scurried to put my Les Paul into it's Protector case . The PA system was making an awful noise so I bent over to turn the power amps down and off and then came forward to protect any more of my equipment from getting damaged . At that point I noticed my wife out in the midst of the fray actually holding back one man ( my wife is 6 feet tall and works taking care of developmentally disabled people who can occasionally go berserk ) and 4 men bleeding from various parts of their anatomy . At this point I became involved as a barrier between any more fighting and it was over . But it happened so fast that I truly was in shock . What had been an awesome gig turned bad so fast that I still have a hard time believing it .
The police were called , the bar cleared out and we were done for the evening . What a bummer !

Diceman:
Sorry to hear about that story. I guess sometimes you just can't win.

As far as my band, we've actually been doing better. We played last night(Saturday) with a few other bands, and although the PA was awful, we played pretty good. We had maybe 100 people who came to se us, and nobody came for the other bands...that was a little awkward. Eventually the other bands (a bunch or hackers, really) cut us off because there "wasn't enough time for the other bands to go on." Everyone was quite impressed with how we sounded, though, and now everyone is asking about CD's. Unfortulately, I think we need our own PA.
Here was out setlist:
Rock and Roll-Zeppelin
Start Me Up-Stones
Pinball Wizard-Who
Purple Haze(I wish my guitar strings didn't break)
Hymn 43-Jethro Tull
My Generation-Who
Funk #49-James Gang
American Band-Grand Funk

Diceman

Wow, that first gig was terrible. I've been at some pretty wild gigs with fights breaking out and the cops being called, but never anyone seriously hurt. That would be terrible.

Some people cannot control themselves. They get a little booze in them and act like idiots. That is not the band's fault. They would fight whether you were there or not.

xg5a- Sounds like you guys had a pretty good gig. All your practice paid off and your band was the best.

Go back to that club and see if the owner will book you guys. The best place to score the next gig is the last place you played. If fact, we always try to book a few gigs that night.

Our band has a month break now. We needed it, we have played the last 4 weekends in a row. Our drummer has his children every other weekend and doesn't really want to play every single week. So it is good he will get to spend more time with his kids. We are going to try and learn 3 or 4 new songs in this short break. We want to work on some newer songs (90's-2000).

Our show Saturday was great. Not a real big crowd, maybe 100-120 people. But they enjoyed the show, applauded and danced. The owner was real happy and booked us for another show in May. Paid us pretty good too. :D We are starting to really loosen up on stage, relax and have fun. Our last 3 shows were all good and got the crowd going. So we are really starting to perform well now.

I am underage also. Everyone in my band is 16. We just find clubs that have open mic nights and call to see if we can get in. Thats what we're doing to get our name out.

classic_rock_kid08

That is an excellent idea. Most clubs will allow underage kids in providing there is at least one parent to supervise. And most stipulate that the young people are not allowed to sit at the bar.

I helped get a good underage band in my area several gigs at clubs. They did well. A couple of their parents showed up and lots of kids as well. The club did pretty good selling soda and food. And there were plenty of regulars who showed up and enjoyed the show as well.

So talk to your parents and see if they would be willing to chaperone you. Perhaps one of the parents can go along and talk to an owner about getting you up at an open mic. If you do well you can talk about getting a regular gig. You may have to play free, but what the heck. It's lots of fun and you gain experience playing in front of crowds. Just as it takes practice to learn your instrument, it also takes practice to learn how to play a gig. There are a lot of do's and don'ts. :D

at open mics, my band doesnt get payed, we use it for practice, like wes said. By doing this, we got a gig at a party. We are a three piece band, and are going to get paid $60 an hour for our first party! We dont even have vocals! I reccomend following the advice Wes gave.

Wes,
as you have a few weeks off, any chance of that Highway Song tab please?
;)

Jim (and anyone else looking for that tab) --
I found a Guitar Pro tab of it on MySongBook.com which seems pretty accurate. (Other than the few lyrics that show up, which cause me to suspect that maybe English was not the tabber's primary language. Then again, I can't write in French.) I think it was a GP3.
If you don't have Guitar Pro, you can download a demo version of GP5 (which will play anything tabbed with previous editions), and have fifteen days to try that tab and any others you may fancy.
Maybe Wes can save some time by comparing that version to what he uses. If it's "close enough," maybe he can relax a little during his "time off." :wink:

We now return you to the original theme of this thread. :lol: